The journey to Chernihiv - the needs remain accute

The drive from Kiyv to Chernihiv took a bit more than 4 hours. To avoid the destroyed bridge of the highway, we have to use a 2-lane road in a big forest. Roads are generally in bad shape in Ukraine but here you add the numerous checkpoints. Each time, ID and a document legitimising the goods that we transported. Taking pictures and videos remains totally prohibited because of the makeshift fortifications on the way. At least twice we had to hold our breath as we were crossing bridges that had been just quickly repaired. As we were approaching the city, the traces of recent battles became visible: remains of a few tanks and then houses and factories in ruins. My 2 companions, just coming back to the city after the siege, who had remained quite silent during the trip, became suddenly more tense and emotional.

We finally reached out destination: the Roman Catholic parish of the Holy Spirit. Father Pyotr of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary received us with our shipment of food and medicine. 2 days ago the 30 people who had been sleeping with them in the basement since the beginning of the offensive could go back home. Only one family remains there because their house is totally destroyed. Gas and electricity are also back at least in this neighbourhood. But supply of basic necessities remains scarce.

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A video from Br Leopold in the Chernihiv supply centre.

Here a well-made short video from the supply centre in Chernihiv where br Leopold has been helping the distribution teams take vital aid to villages in the region. Many people there are homeless or living in houses which do not protect from rain and cold anymore. With infrastructures destroyed or damaged and employment completely disrupted, many many people (especially the most fragile) depend on these teams bringing them food and medicine. Please keep helping.

An insight into who the refugees are and how the return trip was also helpful

Last night I signed up for taking refugees from the Ukrainian-Polish border to Germany or The Netherlands. An hour later, at 8pm, I set off with 3 women from the Kharkiv and Chernohiv regions, both of which are occupied or beseiged. As we drove through the night, 90 year old Iryna had left her beloved Kharkiv region for the first time, and was hoping to find her way accross Europe with a small light blue hold-all, to meet up with her daughter and 2 small grand-daughters who'd fled before her and had been calling her helplessly from the family in western Germany where they'd been received. Khrystyna must have been in her late 20's and is an accountant for a business in Chernihiv... that is, until everything changed the day her home village was occupied and her city surrounded. She rushed to make it out and to head, she too, to the Polish border and massive refugee centre. A few nights on a camp bed in the never-sleeping hangars where tired looking refugees are lovingly and d...

Br Leopold in July helping clean up destroyed houses

Now that the siege of the city had been entirely lifted, the main bridges repaired, and the frontline has stabilised at some 500 kilometers to the East, Chernihiv is busy healing the wounds and moving forward. Second half of July, I teamed up with Bo mozhemo or “Because we can”. It is a thriving association of local volunteers who are providing their know-how, energy and time to help poor families clean up the ruins of their homes and provide them with decent accommodation before winter comes. Every day they single out one or two sites and work patiently and tirelessly between 4 and 10 hours to sort the rubble, fix what is still fixable and plant the foundation of new homes. You certainly breathe a lot of dust and ashes here but still more joy, dynamism and solidarity. And from the side of the affected families, who host the activities, it is sheer determination to start over again. Could this be the real victory, a visible sign of the Risen Christ acting in the world?...

ST. JAN - CHARITY UKRAINE

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